Making the Pieces Fit
by squibalicous
Summary: S4 Finale fic. Booth has his memories back but with one very significant difference. Not AU
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

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"Are we done here doc?" Agent Seeley Booth asked as a nurse finished re-bandaging his head. The doctor had been drilling him with questions for a half hour. 'What year is it?' 'Who is the President?' 'What is your full name?' 'Where do you work?' and a litany of others.

"Just about Agent Booth. It is not uncommon for coma patients to suffer from varying degrees of amnesia. When you first awoke last night you displayed symptoms of possible retrograde amnesia, evident by your inability to identify Dr. Brennan."

Booth sighed heavily remembering the look on her face when he asked who she was. Of course he remembered, it was just waking up from that dream where everything and everyone was so familiar but displaced. He stayed conscience for only a few more minutes, drifting back to sleep listening to her insistent demands for a doctor. He awoke two more times during the night but she was no longer camped by his bedside. He asked the nurses to call her, let her know that he did remember her. They politely explained that she had gone home but had assured them that she would return first thing in the morning.

"Yeah, about that, I was just confused."

"Again, not uncommon. You appear at this time to have full memory retrieval with a slight impairment."

"Slight impairment? I just gave you everything you'd need to write my biography, I'm from Philly, I joined the Army when I was 18, I was Ranger and sniper, I work for the FBI, I have a eight year old son named Parker. I had a tumor in my head, you took in out. Where's the impairment?"

"We can discuss that when I come back. I'd like your permission to discuss your condition with Dr. Brennan, may I?"

"Yeah, sure, of course." Booth replied, perplexed by the doctor's request for permission.

"Okay, just relax for now I should be back in an hour." Turning the man started for the busy hall of the ICU. Booth did not like being in the dark. He needed a straight answer about what was going on and there was only one person he trusted to tell him the honest truth.

"Hey doc!" He called out to the departing surgeon. "When you get done can you please send my wife in?"

Nodding, the doctor replied, "Let me talk to Dr Brennan then we'll both come and see you."

Settling back into the bed, Booth looked around his room seeing a small collection of cards and a bouquet of flowers with a plastic 'Get Well" placard sticking garishly from the center. _Flowers_ he thought. _ I wonder if I could get some flowers delivered here before the doc and Bren get back._ He felt like he needed to do something to apologize for forgetting his wife of four years, Dr. Temperance Brennan.


	2. Chapter 2

Temperance Brennan listened carefully as Dr Jarsic described his evaluation of Booth. When Booth finally awoke after four days in a coma she honestly thought it was over. She had barely moved from the chair across from his hospital bed for the first 16 hours after the surgery and onset of his comatose state. Finally Angela and Jack made her go home to shower, eat and perhaps sleep. Jack remained with strict instructions to call her the minute there was any change in his condition.

Over the next three days she settled into a pattern. Sitting in the mornings and early afternoons with Booth until Angela, Jack or Cam arrived to relieve her. She'd go home to sleep for a few hours then return in the evening; staying until the early morning hours then finally dragging herself home for a few short hours of sleep then started the pattern all over again.

She called Rebecca twice a day with little more than a word that there was no change in his condition. She agreed with Rebecca that bringing Parker around to see his father was unadvisable. On the third day Parker insisted he speak to Bones over the phone. He asked if his daddy was in pain. Stifling a cry with her hand before replying she assured his son that no, his father was most likely not experiencing any pain. Parker told her that he going to ask his mom to take him to church, so he could to light a candle and say a prayer for his daddy. _Yes, he would like that very much_, she replied torn between her own convictions and the greater need to reassure a frightened child. It was only after Parker's parting words as the call ended that she felt the tears she had restrained for days finally fall.

_'Daddy doesn't like hospitals. I'm glad you're there cause when he wakes up he'll know not to be scared.'_

But when he did wake with that distant, confused look, his was scared. It didn't matter that she was there to welcome him back because he had no idea who she was. Backing away from his bed she called to the night-shift nurse of the ICU to find the doctor on call. Returning to the room she found him once more asleep. It was explained to her that this was normal in coma patients after they recover. He would likely wake again in a few hours.

She slept more that night than she had in last five days. Her movements were slow and methodical in the morning as she showered and ate. There was no longer an urgency in her actions to return to the hospital just to see that vacant look once more in his eyes. That is until she received Dr Jursic's phone call. Not only was Booth awake but his memory was back. She was out the door before the call ended only half hearing the doctor's insistence that he speak to her before she went to see Booth.

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Dr Jursic has gotten to know Dr Temperance Brennan over the past five days. He suspected most people interpreted her pragmatism for cool detachment. As the hours then days stretched on since Agent Booth's surgery he became more accustom to the forensic anthropologist even demeanor but he wondered how she would take his news.

"Coma patients, when they first awake, commonly experience a temporary post-traumatic amnesia. Agent Booth appears to have recovered and scored 100 on the Galveston scale. He has complete recall of his personal history, as well as past and current events at large. I reviewed with him the list of family members, co-workers and associates you provided and he correctly identified each individual and his relationship with them. The only indication of a possible problem are his memories directly associated with you Dr Brennan. I would rather not speculate on a diagnosis without a more thorough examination by a neuropyschologist but I suspect we are dealing with a form of dissociative fugue by proxy. He is positive that you are not just his work partner but you are also his wife."

Bones swallowed the dry lump that formed in her throat.

"What could have caused Booth to dissociate the nature of our relationship?"

"Dissociative fugue has been attributed to traumatic or highly stressful events. Dr Brennan, prior to the escalation of Agent Booth's symptoms was there a significant event or occurance that may have caused him great stress or trauma?"

For the first time in five days, Dr Jursic watched as a hairline crack appeared in Dr Brennan's veneer as she shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

"We...that is I had decided to have child recently. I asked Booth to donate his sperm for insemination. I assured him that he would not be obligated to and financial or familial support of the child. He had agreed but changed his mind while he was hallucinating a cartoon baby during an interrogation. He told the hallucination that he didn't want me to go through with it if he wasn't involved with the rearing of the child. He told, 'If I'm the father, then I have to be the father.'"

"And it was immediately after this episode you brought him to the hospital?"

"Yes."

Dr Jursic leaned back and quietly watched the attractive woman seated before him.

"Agent Booth's chart lists that his has an eight year old son. Can you tell me about his relationship with the boy and his mother?"

"Parker. Rebecca, Parker's mother and Booth were in a relationship when she became pregnant. Booth is Catholic and has a very traditional, archaic attitude about relationships. He told me that at the time he asked Rebecca to marry him but she refused his proposal. He has expressed disappointment in not providing an orthodox familia construct in which to raise his son. But he works very hard to maintain his relationship with his son and congenial interaction with Rebecca."

"From what Agent Booth told me about his dream, your friends and co-workers were present but their roles and personalities were altered to conform with the environment his sub-conscious created, in this case a night club. This morning he is able to distinguish the difference between the dream-created persona and his real relationship with them. All that is but you. As you've said, if he was to father your child his expectations are that he would fulfill the traditional role of a father. The idea of not fulfilling this role caused a severe degree of stress, coupled with the stress and trauma of his surgery may have induced the dissociative state. His sub-conscious has attempted to relieve this stress by altering very specific aspects of his reality. I suspect that Agent Booth's sub-conscious desires created an ideal scenario in which to father a child with you."

"But, we..he, we've never... We are not involved in that way, we never even, ever." Another crack in the veneer.

"I understand Dr Brennan. You should know that it is quite possible that the next time Agent Booth wakes up his memory will correct itself. Our brains are remarkable in their ability to heal. But I believe the dissociation is so deeply rooted and integrated with his true memories that he will require therapy to extricate the dissociation. Until then, I feel it best for his recovery from the surgery that we minimize his stress by not questioning the dissociation."

"Are you suggesting that we encourage his delusion?"

"Not encourage it but refrain from questioning or altering it until we can determine a course of therapy."

"So what do you need me to do? Pretend to be his wife?"

"No. This Agent Booth's new reality. What I need you to do is allow him to be your guide through it."

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Okay, so for the record I know nothing about neuropsychology. What is in this chapter is just what I could gleam from an afternoon surfing the web. But primarily it is complete POOMA (**p**ulled **o**ut **o**f **m**y **a**rse)

Next chapter, _Dr Temperance Brennan, meet you husband..._


	3. Chapter 3

Booth eased himself onto the hospital bed. The ICU nurse tried to keep him from getting up to use the bathroom but there was no way he was going to use a bed pan to relieve himself. They argued again when she went to follow him into the adjacent bathroom. He told her it was bad enough his ass was hanging out of the back of gown. _"There are parts of me only my wife has the privilege to see."_ He had declared. They compromised at having her wait outside the open door.

His impatience had grown exponentially from the moment the doctor left to talk to Bren. _ He said an hour. It's been two_. He thought. It was not that he wanted to see the doc again but to see Bren. _What I must have put her through last night._ Of course, he knew, outwardly she would understand that his confusion upon waking with no recognition of her was medically explainable. But underneath that staunchly practical cover there existed a woman with a deep wound. The men in her life had nasty habits of walking out on her, of forgetting her. Too bad his amnesia wasn't kind enough to wipe away the memory of her look of disbelief and disappointment when he asked her who she was. For four years he had worked to heal that wound. To show Bren that he was a man she could trust to never walk out on her.

Finally settled back into bed the nurse checked his IV.

"Dr Jursic called, he and Dr Brennan are on their way."

On cue the docor entered his room followed by Bren. Annoyed that he could barely see his wife from behind the doctor, his fears were confirmed as she took a distant position from his bed, unwilling to meet his eyes.

"Agent Booth, the nurses tell me you've been a bit difficult."

"Yeah, well, when a man can do for himself, he should. Doc, can I get a minute with my wife? Alone?"

The doctor turned to Bones, "Remember what we discussed." He motioned to the nurse to depart with him, leaving the couple.

Booth raised his hand to encourage her to come closer, "Bren, about last night...I'm so sorry."

"There's nothing to apologize for Booth." she interrupted him as she slowly stepped to his bed side, allowing him to take her hand.

_'Shit'_ he thought, _she really is pissed_.

"You're angry."

"What, no? Why would I be angry Booth?"

"Yes you are. If you weren't you wouldn't be calling me Booth." He clutched her hand closer, feeling a hesitation and pull from her. He squeezed a little tighter as he continued.

"You only call me Booth when we are working a case or when you are angry. Bren, honey, I am so sorry for scaring you last night." He pleaded, searching her face to make eye contact. "But in my defense," he said in lighter tone, "I do have a hole in my head."

Bones finally looked into his eyes. She had been distracted by the warmth of his hand as it held on to hers.

"The craniotomy was performed at the lambdoid suture between the occipital and temporal bone. Dr Jursic re-fused the suture after removing the tumor. No bone was removed that would have left a hole."

Bones abruptly stopped when she heard Booth chuckle. He brought her hand to his lips and softly kissed her knuckles.

"Don't ever change Bren." he said, smiling up at her. Then his eyes became serious with sincerity. "You know, I could never forget you Bren. I'd never leave you like that."

Bones gasped, nodding her head, she answered in a whisper, "I know."

"Good, so can you drop the 'Booth'? Outside of work, the only time I like to hear you call me that is when you have on that tight skirt and the frilly cream blouse and those magnification lenses with the bid chunky frames." His eyes danced with mirth as his voice took on a low sexy tone, "'_Mr. Booth, you know there is no talking during study hall period.'_ I just love that sexy librarian look."

Bones suddenly felt panic run through her body. _You can do this_, she assured herself. She pulled her hand from Booth's to anxiously adjust the bed sheet. Her hand shook as it grazed his pectoral muscle. Taking a deep breath, she settled her hand over his heart.

"Seeley," came awkwardly from her lips, "We need to talk with Dr Jursic."

Booth closed his eyes in relief at hearing his name from her.

"Hope he has an idea about when I can get out of here. Parks' got a Little League game this weekend, I'd hate to miss....Argh, Parker, kid must be scared out of his mind. You've talk to him right? How's he handling this?"

"Yes, I kept Rebecca informed on your condition. Parker, he ah..uhm, went to church to say a prayer for you and lit a candle. I told him you'd be very happy to know he did that."

"Thank you Bren."

"For what?"

"For understanding. I know you'll never share my, how do you put it, archaic belief system but, you know, you understand it's part of who I am." He smiled lovingly at her. "And it's one of the many reason why I love you."

Booth took her hand from his chest and gently pulled her to him. His other hand coming up to her face to cup her cheek. Bones exhaled a shakey breath as her lips made contact with his. Pulling back, his hand swept the stray strands of hair from face.

Bones stepped out of Booth's embrace, shocked by what had just transpired.

"I'm going to bring Dr Jurcis back in. We need to discuss your recovery. You may need some rehabilitative therapy."

"Sure, whatever I need to do to get me out of here and back home with you Bren."

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This came out fluffier than I intended. Hope y'all like. Can't promise more until next weekend.

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